Saturday, November 12, 2011

AMERICA: ECUADOR : NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE FAMILY

Agenzia Fides REPORT - From November 9 to 12, the Second National Congress of the Family on the theme "Family, work and free day- The Ecuadorian family in mission: work and feast day at the service of the person and the common good" ("Familia, Trabajo y Fiesta - The familia ecuatoriana en misión: el trabajo y la fiesta al servicio de la persona y del bien común") which is being held simultaneously in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Portoviejo, Tena and Loja, Ecuador. Participants attending the conference are 5,700 according to the information sent to Fides.One of the key issues, subject of almost all the conferences, is the theme of marriage, which in the words of Jesus Fernandez Hernandez, president of the Institute Identes of Christ the Redeemer, "more than a contract it is an alliance", man and woman realize between them the most intimate communion. Marriage, according to the words of the founder of the Community of Identes Missionaries, Fernando Rielo, is the grace of this union, which gives unity and meaning to life. It is a mystical school, because its origin is elevated to a sacrament by Christ.On the other hand, the Identes missionary said that "the family not only needs material assistance. Although this is a fundamental thing, the economic side, however, is not everything. It is the spirit that should characterize the family, and to succeed in this goal, communication is fundamental. The media plays an important role, however there are many who insist on passing on values and ideologies that lead nowhere", he said.Another speaker of the Congress, the Archbishop of Cuenca, Mgr. Luis Cabrera, said that "the opening of these spaces to listen to the family is extremely important, because we are not able to provide answers or suggest alternatives until we know what the families live". One of the great interests of the Congress, he underlined, is that "this opportunity may become a forum where families are able to say what they need, their concerns, their fears and what they expect from their Pastors".The Holy Father Benedict XVI sent a Message to the President of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza, Archbishop of Guayaquil, in which he highlights that, according to the theme of the Congress, the family "is not a private reality, closed in on itself. Because of its vocation, it lends a wonderful and crucial service for the common good of society and to the Church's mission". In addition, " work and feast day in particular are deeply tied to the lives of families: influencing their choices, relationships between spouses and between parents and children, and affect family ties with society and with the Church". The Pope believes that "the lack of job and its insecurity attack the dignity of man, not only by creating situations of injustice and poverty, which often degenerate into despair, crime and violence, but also a crisis of identity in people". At the same time the feast day "humanizes time by opening the encounter with God, with others and with nature. This is why families need to recover the authentic meaning of the feast day, especially on Sundays, the day of the Lord and man". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 11/11/2011)